Segacs’s World I Know

Elie Wiesel speaks out in support of war against Iraq. In an article in the Observer (via CJA), he says that while war itself is never a good option, sometimes – as in this case – it is the only moral option.

I find war repugnant. All wars. I know war’s monstrous aspects: blood and corpses everywhere, hungry refugees, devastated cities, orphans in tears and houses in ruins. I find no beauty in it. But it is with a heavy heart I ask this: what is to be done? Do we have the right not to intervene, when we know what passivity and appeasement will make possible?

Is President Bush’s policy of intervention the best response to an imperative need? Yes, it is said, and I am reluctant to say anything else. Bush’s goal is to prevent the deadliest biological or nuclear conflict in modern history.

If the US, supported by the UN Security Council, is forced to intervene, it will save victims who are already targeted, already menaced. And it will win. The US owes it to us, and owes it to future generations. As the great French writer André Malraux said, victory belongs to those who make war without loving it.

To all the people who protest war on principle, I urge them to read the article.

CNN’s online poll asks readers what they believe are the top 10 news stories of 2002.

According to the results so far, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the terrorist attack in Bali, and the Russian hostage crisis are nowhere to be found in the top 10. But Martha Stewart and Winona Ryder’s court cases were both on the list.

What does that say about American culture?

Now here’s something you don’t see every day: Protests against the Left. In Venezuela, tens of thousands of protesters are marching to support a giant strike against President Hugo Chavez.

This isn’t exactly breaking news. Chavez hasn’t been winning too many popularity contests for a while now. But it occurs to me that we tend to associate large-scale strike or protest movements with the Left, but in this case, they’re protesting because they consider Chavez too far left.

Pro- and anti-Chavez demonstrations have taken place almost daily during the work stoppage called by business, labour and opposition politicians on Dec. 2 to force Chavez to resign or submit to early elections.

They say Chavez’s leftist policies and autocratic style have ruined the Venezuelan economy.

With all our focus on the Mideast, it’s easy to lose sight of important developments in other parts of the world. But the situation in Venezuela is getting more out of control by the day, and certainly merits a close watch.

Another tip from an e-mail from Judith: If you thought Concordia was bad, life for Jewish students at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium is ten times worse. Ha’aretz reports that pro-Israel students are facing death threats on that campus:

“Jews in Belgium live today in a new reality, one in which they cannot express their sympathy for Israel in any way,” reflects a historian at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Free University of Brussels. His angry comment came in response to death threats aimed at two Jewish students who put up pro-Israeli posters on campus earlier this month.

Benjamin and Nicole, who agreed to be identified only by their first names, study natural sciences at the Free University, and belong to the Friends of Israel association. Two weeks ago, they and a few other students put up some pro-Israel posters in the student union area of the Brussels campus. The posters conveyed messages such as “Which was the first state in the Middle East which gave Arab women the right to vote,” or “Terror attacks against civilians are an abomination.” Along the bottom of the posters was written “If you’re for tolerance, don’t rip this off the wall,” in anticipation that a leftist group would be likely to remove the new posters.

The next morning, the two students received phone calls from an anonymous caller who had a Middle Eastern accent, and threatened to attack them. “We know who you are and where you live,” the caller threatened, in the call to Nicole. “We also know that you have a brother, as well as the license number of your car and the place where you park it.” The caller continued: “If the flyer isn’t removed by the evening, we’ll burn the car, and harm you and your family.” Benjamin, 22, received a similar phone call.

The students reacted by taking down the posters, because those threats and follow-ups convinced them that their personal safety was at risk. But they later helped stage a rally that drew 1,000 people in support of free speech.

The point is, freedom of speech doesn’t seem to extend to Israel’s supporters on campuses around the world. Incident after incident of this ought to be enough for the alarm bell to sound. You can put up posters in support of Palestinians, Iraqis, Pagans, Wiccans, the Falun Gong, snowboarding, amateur radio, or people who pick their noses. That’s all allowed. But any kind of pro-Israel activity is being met with extraordinary efforts to shut it down.

Reader Judith tipped me off to this story in the Jerusalem Post about the opposition of Israeli Arabs to dividing Jerusalem.

Now, it’s been the traditional assumption that, in the Mideast conflict, the Jews want an undivided Jerusalem under Israel control, and the Arabs want either an internationalized Jerusalem or a divided one, or some combination thereof. But it’s of course a faulty assumption to lump the two “sides” into homogeneous groups, all with the same opinion. But as proof that many Israel Arabs aren’t exactly enamoured with the Palestinian Authority, a group has launched a campaign against dividing Jerusalem:

Dividing Jerusalem would mean bringing Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Force 17, and the Tanzim into the Arab-controlled parts of the city, a group of Jerusalem Arabs warned Saturday.

Members of the group, headed by Zuheir Hamdan, one of the mukhtars of the Sur Baher neighborhood, met over the weekend to discuss the Labor Party’s new platform, according to which the city would be divided.

[. . .]

“It’s strange to see that many Israelis haven’t drawn the lessons from the events of the last two years,” Hamdan told The Jerusalem Post. “An Israeli withdrawal [from east Jerusalem] would bring all the gunmen of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front to Damascus Gate, Mount Scopus and Mount of Olives. They will turn Jerusalem into Gaza.”

Hamdan, who spearheaded a campaign against the division of Jerusalem during the Barak government, said he now planned to launch a similar drive “to explain the dangers involved in bringing the Palestinian Authority into the city.”

[. . .]

“I believe the majority doesn’t believe in Arafat’s corrupt and tyrannical rule. Look what he’s done in Lebanon, Jordan, and now in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has brought one disaster after another on his people.”

[ . . .]

“We are also going to send messages to US President George Bush, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdallah telling them that Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque don’t belong to Arafat,” he said.

“We will tell them that there should be a referendum among the Arabs in Jerusalem so they would be able to decide on their own future,” the mukhtar said. “We won’t accept a situation where we are led like sheep to the slaughterhouse.”

The above article just serves as another warning about the dangers of making sweeping assumptions.

I’m back after taking a day off from blogging. Of course, the news never seems to take a day off.

Palestinian elections have been delayed yet again. And this time, it seems that they have found a seemingly foolproof way to delay democracy indefinitely.

Blaming Israel’s continuing occupation, Palestinians have postponed elections scheduled for next month and say the vote won’t take place until 100 days after Israeli troops have left the West Bank.

Since Israeli troops are unlikely to leave the West Bank until terrorist attacks cease, and since terrorism continues to be encouraged and funded by the present PA leadership, this is an ingenious way for Arafat to remain secure in his position as dictator while simultaneously blaming Israel, as usual.

Israeli elections have their own problems, of course. The Likud party is dealing with allegations of bribery and vote-buying. Israel is fallible, like any democracy. None are immune – Canada included (do the names Alfonso Gagliano and Lawrence MacAulay ring a bell?) – and Israel is dealing with its problems openly and in the best way it can. Sharon has pledged to expel any member of his party involved in corruption. But while Palestinian supporters around the world criticize Israeli democracy on a daily basis, they never stop to realize that at least Israel has democracy, flawed though it may be. Whatever else the Palestinian Authority has been, it has never been democratic.

NBC has announced that Friends will be back next season.

There was a bus bombing in Pakistan today, where at least 2 people were killed and more than a dozen injured.

How long until they start blaming the Jews and the Zionists for this one, do you figure?

It really pisses me off to hear allegations that Israel doesn’t do enough to provide emergency rescue services, especially considering the Canadian and worldwide campaigns against Magen David Adom. And especially when I read things like this:

The event featured guest speaker Sarah Kronis, who has worked as a volunteer with Magen David Adom for the past five years. Kronis, 24, described her experiences helping patients, and assisting medical staff aboard the ambulances. She also noted the changes that have taken place since the latest intifidah began in September 2000.

For example, ambulance staff are now clad in bullet-proof vests and a staff member always stays behind to guard the ambulance at the scene of an incident. Over the past two years, almost 100 of the 550 Magen David Adom ambulances have been destroyed, stolen or repainted as Red Crescent ambulances (which may be used to carry terrorists and explosives).

“They’re at a point where they really need ambulances,” said Kronis. During her discussion, she noted that her friend’s ambulance had been set on fire.

The next time I hear that it was the Israelis who were preventing ambulances from reaching injured people, I’m going to ask those making the allegations exactly how many Red Crescent ambulances were stolen, repainted, and used to transport explosives by the IDF.